When David Wuescher of Canoga Park retired in 1999 from his fine woods cabinet shop, he found himself lacking a sense of purpose and wanted to find a way to give back to society.

So, about seven years ago, he became a certified personal trainer with the International Fitness Professionals Association. His clientele is seniors in their 70s and, he says, the fact he is 72 gives him a better understanding of what struggles his clients face.

“I personally think probably the most useful thing for the senior population is to get them to understand that they can have so much time. Medical advances have just stretched it out so you can easily live to be 100 years old and not have to work hard at it,” said Wuescher.

“So if you’re 70, then that’s 30 years and maybe it’s time to think in terms of, like, maybe you just graduated. Maybe all of these 70 years have been like school and now it’s time to get out there and live, have fun and enjoy life.”

Wuescher teaches physical fitness as a way of educating his clients on how to have a healthy, happy lifestyle.

He describes the older population as having a more narrow outlook on life, almost as if life begins to shrink. They begin to physically do less, he says, and therefore life seems to hold less for them.

To counter this thinking, Wuescher uses his training to help his clients “expand their sphere of influence.”

How does he do this?

He starts with the feet.

While they are on the treadmill, he makes his clients walk forward, backward, sideways and with longer strides. He then uses this as an analogy for life, showing them they can still move forward, be flexible and make the necessary changes to improve their quality of living.

For him, it’s all about movement.

“If you sit still too long, they will come take you away,” jokes Wuescher. “If you don’t move, you will lose whatever life you have.”

Wuescher’s girlfriend, Lori San Martin, 56, is also an IFPA-certified personal trainer who works with about 15 baby boomers. She got into the business 10 years ago after being a stay-at-home mom.

The pair work with their clients in their home, their clients’ homes and at the Topanga Training & Fitness gym in Woodland Hills.

They like to use the home as a training ground because they want their clients to be able to continue to function in the real world and, as they say, the gym is not the real world.

Among the exercises they have their clients do throughout the house are push-ups off the kitchen counter, sitting up and down off the couch – similar to squats – step-ups on the curb, and walking up and down stairs. They also recommend their clients do exercises to increase balance, such as standing on one foot or working with a stability ball.

But the duo points out, you can’t forget the importance of weight lifting.

“Working out with free weights is extremely important as you get older and people forget that,” said San Martin. “You have to keep weight training to not only strengthen the muscles but it actually strengthens the bones as well, and that’s a real problem when you get older … osteoporosis.”

Dr. Mostafa Rahimi of Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Institute’s Urgent Care Center in San Pedro says physical activity is critical in helping seniors in every aspect of health – physical, mental and emotional.

Ahead of even chronic illness, he says, the biggest health problem for seniors is falling and the potential complications, which can lead to death. He says exercise is paramount to preventing such accidents.

Rahimi recommends speaking with a doctor or personal trainer before beginning any exercise program because each person will face different hurdles including osteoporosis, arthritis, joint disease and back pain.

He says seniors who are able should walk, do resistance training and participate in aerobics. But the key is just to get started.

“You can make the gym start from your home,” he said. “You have to start at one point, and even if you don’t have much time, do 10 minutes now and 10 minutes later.

“It’s like investments,” he said. “You’re investing in your body and investing in a better lifestyle because once you get to a point, it’s hard to return.”

San Martin also stresses the importance of seniors realizing and embracing that they will not be in the same shape or weigh the same as they did when they were in their 20s. and how to stay that way.

“It becomes hard for people to go up stairs, so what do people do? They stop doing that. And they should do just the opposite,” said San Martin.

“Like, when I come across something that’s hard for me to do physically, I’ll go, `Whoa, I gotta do this some more.’ I gotta get that muscle strong, whatever it is. So the more you should go up and down stairs you should take the stairs every chance you get ’cause you’ll get stronger.”

But San Martin says she is also aware that with an older clientele, she must be alert to their limitations. She notes knees and backs can be problem areas and to keep in mind that body alignment is crucial in protecting the body from injury.

Wuescher makes sure all his clients wear a heart monitor, which has come in handy.

When 76-year-old Dick Hollander of Woodland Hills started sessions with Wuescher 2 1/2 years ago, he was unable to walk up a flight of stairs. In fact, while attempting to complete a squat he began panting, his face turned gray, his lips turned blue and he passed out.

Wuescher checked his heart monitor, which indicated everything was fine. Hollander had passed out after hyperventilating and was taken to the hospital to be checked out.

The next day, he went back to the gym and bought more sessions with Wuescher.

Now he can walk 20 flights of stairs during a 20-minute workout. He meets with Wuescher twice a week, though he’s upping the number to three times to trim off 20 pounds – he has lost 30 pounds so far.

And even more, Hollander, an avid golfer, now hits the golf ball farther and can walk a full 18-hole course while carrying his clubs.

Wuescher tells his clients to have a hobby as well as a sport, because the sport keeps the body active but the hobby keeps the mind active.

This especially helps people learn how to live in the present, Wuescher says, something he believes is essential to learning how to be happy with the life you have For her, it’s all about educating her clients on how to be healthy at any age.

“It’s hard, because seniors, a lot of times they are anxious or they are future-oriented,” said Wuescher. “I try as best I can to distract them away from that because it just ruins your day.

“If you’re busy thinking about `I’ll be dead soon,’ I don’t think you’re going to be able to have a lot of fun this afternoon.”

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